Deal Near To Use Wetlands For Expressway

State and local officials said Wednesday they are close to a deal that would permit construction of an extension of the East-West Expressway through wetlands near Dean Road.

''We're very close. We agree on the principles and now have to get the technical people to settle'' on the details, said Steve Fox of the state Department of Environmental Regulation.

Fox was one of the department officials who met Wednesday in Tallahassee with representatives of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, which needs a state permit to dredge and fill wetlands north and south of University Boulevard.

While details remain to be worked out, the plan they agreed to calls for filling 13 acres of wetlands and creating another 13 acres of them.

The authority may be required to improve a drainage canal that flows into the Little Econlockhatchee River to improve water quality. The authority also may have to donate about 20 more acres of wetlands to the state to ensure no development occurs on it.

The proposed solution does not sit well with environmentalists and homeowners who are opposing the expressway route.

''This decision is an abomination,'' said David Gluckman, a lawyer for expressway opponents.

Gluckman, one of the leading environmental lawyers in Florida, charged that the environmental regulation agency has caved in to political pressure. He said the expressway plan has been opposed by staff at four levels but that a lobbying campaign orchestrated by the expressway authority has saved the project.

Suzanne Walker, the agency's chief of the bureau of permitting, said lobbying by both sides has canceled each other out. She said the agency's staff originally opposed the expressway plan because it didn't do enough to offset environmental damage caused by the road.

''When they said they were willing to do more, the picture changed,'' Walker said.

The environmental agency's approval of the project does not mean the road will be built.

Gluckman said he would appeal such a decision to Victoria Tschinkel, agency secretary, after an administrative hearing. Her decision could be appealed to the 1st District Court of Appeal.

''My prediction is if they pursue this particular route, they will have a minimum 10 years' wait until they turn over the first shovel of dirt,'' Gluckman said.

Construction of the 4-mile extension of the East-West Expressway from Colonial Drive to Aloma Avenue is planned to start next year. It would be the first leg of a beltway around Orlando.

Opponents of the route contend the extension would destroy wetlands vital to Lakes Irma and Telfer and the Little Econlockhatchee River. They want the expressway route shifted about a half-mile east, to the other side of Dean Road, where they say it would do less environmental harm.

Expressway authority officials have said they can offset the environmental damage. They said moving the route east would increase the road's cost by $3.5 million and reduce toll revenue by $200,000 a year because fewer motorists would use it.

Environmentalists say the project is a major test of a 1984 law designed to preserve the state's shrinking wetlands.

Gluckman said the propsed DER decision ''will mean that private developers can no longer destroy Florida's wetlands, but public bodies will have a free hand to put roads any place they want.''